WESTWOOD, Mass. — At the Westwood Senior Center, it is a microcosmic portrait of the state’s unbalanced vaccine distribution system -- one with the potential to endanger public health.
“We’ve set ourselves up we could do 250-300 vaccinations a day,” said Chief John Deckers of the Westwood Fire Department. “We’re doing a hundred today. We could do a hundred tomorrow and a hundred the next day. But I just don’t have the doses available.”
But he has residents willing to wait for those doses: about 250 of them.
“A lot of our seniors are saying I’ll sit on the list until you’re ready for me because I don’t want to go to Gillette or Fenway or any of the other bigger sites,” Deckers said. “So they’re willing to wait.”
Deckers said he doesn’t want them to wait -- and the town has been encouraging residents to seek out one of the mass injection sites instead. Otherwise, they run the risk of Covid-19 infection -- especially with the continued rise of more transmissible -- and potentially more pathogenic -- variants.
Wednesday, Bob Goodale and his wife Caroline were among the hundred vaccinated. For weeks, they tried to book an appointment elsewhere when suddenly two slots opened up at the center.
“Most of the time it was difficult for us to even get an opening that we could even fill out the forms,” Bob said. “It was a little bit of anxiety trying to get to this point.”
Chief Deckers said the center is following strict guidelines from the Commonwealth as to the allocation of the vaccines.
“Right now we are only doing 75 plus,” he said.
That leaves out younger residents who may nonetheless be at risk, such as Paul Kontrimas, who brought his 89-year-old mother Helen in for her first vaccine injection.
“I visited my doctor and I said, hey, I’ve got two comorbidities,” Kontrimas said. “Can you get me the shot?”
His doctor promised to get back to him -- but so far, he’s had no shot.
“Well maybe when I bring her back for the second shot in a month I can get mine,” Paul pointed to his mother.
Deckers said he also would like to see public works employees moved up the vaccination list, as well as teachers.
Wednesday, the Massachusetts Teachers Association sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary MaryLou Sudders proposing a pilot vaccination program for school staffers to start with 10-20 high-risk districts this month, with more districts added as vaccine supplies become more plentiful.
MTA President Merrie Najimy said other states are way ahead in protecting teachers from Covid.
“There are 32 other states who have put both pre-K-12 and higher ed faculty and staff higher on the list,” she said.
But even some age-eligible residents aren’t currently getting vaccinated, one pharmacist said, either because they can’t get to a vaccination site. Or, because once they get there, health issues would make it difficult for them to wait for any extended period.
“I have a friend whose Mom is in the upper 80s and they wanted to go to Gillette but she has incontinence problems,” said Oleg Urim, RPh, owner of pharmacies in Lynn and Chelsea. “A lot of my customers are over 75 and I understand the limitations that they have. They have mobility issues. They have incontinence issues.”
Urim said key to reaching this population is making the Covid vaccine available at corner drug stores, something he hopes will happen by the end of the month.
“I don’t understand why they’re reinventing the process,” Urim said. Why they’re using this supercenter process or limiting the pharmacies that do have it when the old system worked very well.”
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